The 4400: Stars So Bright
by Aaron Ledgers
Summary: Mai Yamamura had her whole life ahead of her. She was graduating from middle school, and had even been chosen to represent the class of 1952 for the graduation speech. She would then be leaving for Tokyo to attend her high school of choice. At least, that was the plan. On March 4th, right before an earthquake, Mai disappeared. 60 years later she found herself lost among 4399 people
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Hokkaido, March 4th, 1952**

I was excited.

 _Really_. Excited.

The life-changing kind of excited.

And yet, all I could do was stare at the letter of acceptance with my mouth hanging open, like the kind of slow-to-think idiot a few girls from my class sometimes said I was. I was sure that right then I probably didn't fit the look of an aspiring singer with such big dreams, but while looking at that letter, I _did_ have dreams.

Dreams of the utmost grandeur.

I mean, how could _I_ have possibly gotten into the most prestigious high school that Tokyo had to offer?

I was the furthest thing from a model student.

Throughout all of Junior high, I had been a complete mess, constantly oversleeping and lending up tardy, average grades that fluctuated more towards the poor side, and worst of all, I was kind of boring and plain-looking. Even my mother had once said I would be better suited for the Meiji Era, which, all things considered, was really not okay since the Meiji Era ended in 1912. It wasn't like I was ugly or anything, but I wasn't very pretty, either.

I wasn't up to date with the latest clothing trends, I didn't wear makeup, or curl my hair, nothing. In fact, even though I had the longest hair of all the girls in my entire school, the most I ever did was tie it into pigtails, which people sometimes teased me about.

Pigtails were juvenile, and we going to be graduating from middle school soon.

People in the future who would look our graduating photo would definitely notice that I wasn't half as stylish as the girls around me, but I didn't care. I had plans to change that. Once I entered high school, I would work hard to become be lively, cheerful, and as lovely as a flower. Perhaps I would even take a daring leap and cut my hair short.

I was so absorbed in my own dreams and possibilities that I didn't even realize that my mother was calling me until she touched my arm.

"Mai-chan," she scolded. "Did you hear me?"

I jumped and turned, meeting her warm brown eyes with a start.

"Oh, hello mother!" I greeted, smiling. "Forgive me! I was lost in thought."

"Mai-chan," my mom sighed, "I asked you to grab the mail for me. You shouldn't be spacing out."

"Forgive me," I repeated, turning and holding up the letter. "I... I was just..."

"Hm?" my mother asked, peering at the letter of acceptance more closely. "What's that?"

I felt giddiness rising up my throat and couldn't contain myself.

My mother's eyes widened when I started jumping up and down, happily bouncing around the kitchen.

"I got accepted into Horikoshi High School!" I cried. "Mother, I did it! I'm going to my school of choice, in Tokyo!"

Her eyes widened in shock.

"Oh, my!" she gasped, wrapping me up in a joyful hug. "My baby! You did it! You really did it! Oh, this calls for a red bean dinner! Just wait until I tell your father!"

"You're going to send him a telegram?"

"Of course," she exclaimed, but then her face faded into the expression I had seen everywhere lately. "He deserves a bit of good news."

I didn't respond to that since I knew exactly what she meant.

Everyone around me was still upset and crazed over losing the war. Only seven years had passed since the Americans had destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima with their atomic bombs.

Riots were still breaking out here and there, and while many people no longer had to worry about the air raids, the anger and unrest within Japan as a whole was worrisome.

My own father, a soldier in the Japanese army, had been particularly angry about it.

"Mother," I tentatively murmured, setting my letter of acceptance on the table, "since the weather is so nice, may I go to down to the shore for a little while? I want to see the ocean before supper."

"Of course, Mai-chan," she said, smiling at me. "While you do that, I'll tell your little sister the good news and telegram your father, but when you come back, be sure to change out of your uniform."

Feeling delighted, I ran for the front door, taking a moment to put my shoes on before heading outside. The warm ocean breeze caressed my face when I started walking down the street, bringing with it the smell of salt and oil. I tilted my head back and looked up at the sky, reveling in the feeling of the wind in my hair.

It had been a very long time since I'd been allowed to head to the shore. With the threat of raids and bombings going on, nobody had been allowed to set foot there since the beach was so far from any of the shelters.

Hokkaido had mostly been overlooked in comparison to other places, but it had seen its fare share of hardship during the war, and the results were still lingering in the people who'd been forced to experience it.

I paused when I noticed something.

Nobody was within sight.

It was oddly quiet.

Uneasiness shot through me and I felt a wave of goosebumps run up my spine. I didn't know why, but something suddenly felt wrong... so wrong, in fact, that I suddenly wanted to go home even though I'd barely walked out the door.

Turning around, I began to trot back towards my house, which was twenty feet away from where I was standing. I could see my little sister waving at me from the upstairs window.

"Onee-chan!" she called. "Wait for me! Mother says I can come to the beach, too!"

"Fumiko, wait!" I called. "I'm not... going..."

I felt a stab of dismay flood through me when she disappeared from the window before I could finish telling her I wasn't going to the beach anymore.

I loved my little sister, don't get me wrong, but she was kind of a handful for a five-year-old. I let out a sigh, looking down at my shoes and staring at the sidewalk beneath my feet. It was then that I noticed something strange. The sidewalk looked lighter than usual, as if a light were shining on it. I blinked, then blinked again, and again as the strange brightness rapidly began to increase. A strange presence suddenly entered my awareness, as though something had just taken up space directly above me.

Several loose strands of my hair drifted in front of my face as I stood there, staring at my shoes with enormous eyes.

My ears began to ring in a deafening manner.

Something bright was being reflected in the shiny black leather of my school loafers.

My first thought was that an airship had dropped a bomb and it was coming right at me.

But that wouldn't have made sense. The war was seven years over and the light was already there.

 _I don't want to see..._ I silently whispered, heart speeding up and pounding against my chest. _I don't want to look at it_...

The world around me distorted a little as the ringing noise grew louder, making me see black and red spots. I felt as though dark and shadowy hands were reaching out to grab me from behind. Hands that would do something terrible to me if I didn't face them.

So, I slowly lifted my head and looked up at the sky to see what the bright thing was.

I squinted up at a light as bright as the sun.

It was like going into a trance. My whole body froze and I was suddenly unable move, to scream, to do anything at all, even look away from the blinding luminescence above me. A hard gust of wind slammed into me, lifting my hair away from my back, tearing at my clothes, sending debris flying down the street even as my body grew so light that my feet left the ground. Panic rose up my throat. I could feel my skirt and even my hair rising towards the sky.

It was as if I was floating, as if I no longer had a center of gravity, as if I were about to fall up.

Which was crazy, this couldn't be happening, but... I could feel it.

My eyes widened in sheer terror and I burst into silent tears as I stared into the blinding light that had somehow caught me.

Then I heard a door open somewhere.

"Onee-chan?!"

My sister's voice.

She sounded startled, confused.

I wanted to scream for help.

To tell her to go get our mother.

But I couldn't.

I strained so hard to turn my head... slowly fighting against my paralysis with tears of fear running down my face. I could see her staring at me through my billowing hair, could see her fright.

Her doe-like eyes, so wide with shock.

Then she was running, dropping her beach pail and plastic shovel, tearing towards me at top speed.

"ONEE-CHAAA-!"

One second I could hear her screaming for me at the top of her lungs, the next, everything around me disappeared as if someone had turned off my eyes like a television screen.

All was darkness.


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note** **:** There's a video trailer for anyone who's interested: just hop onto youtube and type in "The 4400: Stars So Bright" and enjoy.

* * *

 **Chapter One**

Black... it was all black... nothingness.

No color.

No light.

No sound.

When consciousness next touched me, there was nothing before my eyes.

Only endless darkness.

I couldn't hear, I couldn't see... but I could feel.

I could feel myself floating weightlessly, could feel the warmth of living flesh on either side of me, in front of me, and even behind me... pressed in close, and yet strangely unmoving. The next thing I became aware of was that I couldn't move a muscle.

I was still frozen, arm clamped to the strap of my bag, head tilted back, body incapable of doing anything. Standing upright, I was like a living statue. Remembering anything was still hard, and it felt as though I were swimming to the surface of an underground river, but the air above was as black and airless as the water below.

I had been drifting in the darkness for a long time.

It took me a moment to remember that my own name was Mayumi Yamamura. Then I remembered what had happened a few minutes ago and I felt wide awake. I wanted to move, to call for Fumiko, for my mother, and I was scared.

I vaguely recalled seeing the light above me, and I wondered for a moment if I was dead.

The thought terrified me and I suddenly wanted to see where I was, why everything was so dark... why I felt like there were people all around me, who it was that was pressed against my limbs in such stillness. Then... the darkness suddenly cracked like a pane of glass.

I would have flinched, but I still couldn't move.

More cracks soon jolted through the dark, jagged lines and odd fissures.

My heart thumped and an inexplicable horror built up inside me.

And just like that... the darkness shattered and the world exploded.

My eyes squeezed shut of their own accord and I flinched, lowering my head with my shoulders flying up to my ears. It occurred to me that I could move, and hear, but what I was hearing didn't make any sense. The sounds, the smells, the feeling of the air, everything was all wrong.

Instead of being refreshing and carrying the scent of sea salt and oil, the air suddenly felt humid and moist, and all I could smell was mud and pine.

The soft murmuring of other people had replaced the gentle thrushing noise of the ocean. The rattle of something metal instead of the cherry trees and the crickets. I knew that something was wrong even before I opened my eyes, but I honestly didn't know what to think after I did.

I stared, slack-jawed, head whipping around.

I was surrounded in a sea of foreign people wearing strange clothing. I clutched my bag, shoulders hunched, stiffly staring at everyone with a stunned expression, trying to make sense of what I was seeing, but there was no explanation.

No answer.

Everyone around me was slowly looking around.

They all seemed to be just as baffled and confused as me, and others even looked more afraid than I felt on the inside. My eyes drifted higher, and I gasped: the sky was full of stars, and all around us were mountains covered in evergreen pine trees.

A young blonde woman wearing clothes I remembered seeing in a fashion magazine bumped my arm, grey eyes lost. In a fit of terror, I tapped her arm, and she looked down at me. Her nose wrinkled slightly when I clutched my bag, swallowing hard.

I didn't know if she spoke Japanese, but there was no harm in trying.

"Um, do you know what's going on?" I asked faintly. "How... how did we get here?"

She stared at me blankly, then said something in English, something I didn't understand.

I bit my lip, feeling like I was about to burst into tears at any second, I was so confused, I didn't know what was happening, and she couldn't understand me. Her eyes widened in horror and she hesitantly put a single hand on my shoulder, patting me with no real strength.

She looked reluctant to touch me.

Her eyes drifted around and she muttered something, then her hand left me and she slowly wandered away, looking just as lost as I felt. Then, one at a time, people began to cry, to yell, and confused panic slowly spread through everyone around me.

Someone suddenly pushed me from behind and I went flying forward, landing in the mud on my hands and knees. I couldn't make my legs move after that. I was too frightened, all alone in a strange place, with no idea how I'd gotten there, and it began to hit me all at once.

I sank back on my knees as people began to scream in English, and other languages I'd never heard, some that I recognized but didn't understand. I hugged my school bag, staring at everyone through blurry vision with my whole body shaking like a leaf, unable to stop.

"Fumiko-chan!" I wailed, looking around at all of the unfamiliar faces. "MOTHER! FUMIKO-CHAN!"

Nobody even looked my way. They were too busy with their own confused panic.

"MOTHER!" I screeched, burying my face in my bag and bursting into tears. "MOTHER! MOTHER! HELP ME!

"Who is speaking Japanese?!"

My heart lurched and I looked up, tears flying off my lashes.

I'd barely heard it over the sound of the panic around me, b

"I am!" I cried, shakily standing up and looking around. "Where are we?!"

"I have no idea!" the voice, unmistakably male, called back. "Keep yelling!"

"Over here?!" I shouted, waving my arms. "This way!"

"Louder!"

I obliged without question and screamed, "I'M OVER HERE!"

I kept waving my arms and yelling until a rather tall boy wearing a strange-looking uniform shouldered his way through the panicking throng. I blinked when his sharp eyes locked on me, the sweep of his black hair covering his left eye. I dropped my arms, holding my bag close.

He looked at my school uniform with something akin to a disbelieving sneer.

"What are you wearing?"

His question was spoken with a layer of contempt I hadn't been expecting.

I stared at him, finding it completely strange that his first question would be about my clothing. And what was with his attitude?! We were stuck among an entire crowd of people who couldn't speak Japanese, in the middle of nowhere, with no idea how we'd gotten here.

"It's... it's my school uniform," I stammered, swallowing hard before I trotted up. "Do you know where we are? How did we get here?!"

"Hell if I know," he muttered, frowning. "The last thing I remember is hanging out on the school rooftop during the lunch hour... then there was this strange light, and the next thing I knew I was standing right here."

"You saw a light, too?" I asked, feeling alarmed. "Could that be how we got here?"

"I have no idea." he said, giving me a look. "What do _you_ remember?"

"Well, I was getting ready to go down to the beach with my little sister," I mumbled, speaking over the yelling all around us, "then, there was a bright light, and I suddenly couldn't move... even it when everything got dark. The next thing I knew, we were all right here."

I swallowed hard, but I fought to keep my feelings buried inside me.

"Look," he said lowly, pointing at something. "Over there."

I followed his finger and stared, since there were strange looking cars pulling up along the trees off in the distance. A lot of people wearing what seemed like police uniforms were already leading the panicked crowd to the giant automobiles, which had giant doors built into the back.

I watched as the people around me began to make their way for the trees. The officers in blue directed them to the vans, soothing and placating the rowdier people, but many others, however, grew angry and resisted.

I flinched and unthinkingly clutched the Japanese boy's arm when someone tried to attack one of the policemen. He let out a shout and dropped to the ground in a heap when something latched onto his arm, jerking and screaming before he fell still, cowering in a little ball.

"What was that?!" I stammered, shivering violently. "What did they do to him?"

The Japanese boy was silent.

I glanced up at him, but he wasn't looking at me, he was staring off at a group of Foreign police officers who were now approaching us and many other people who were all still fearfully huddled together and conversing with in frantic tones all around us.

One of them and looked right at me.

I swallowed hard when he walked right up to the two of us and said something in English.

I didn't understand, but after a moment he frowned and said something a little more harshly.

My mouth began to tremble and my knees felt rubbery all over again.

"I don't understand," I whimpered, fighting back tears. "What is he saying?"

"I don't speak Gaijin," the boy beside me snorted.

The officer pulled a small black box out of his pocket and said something into it, then waited; I jumped when a static-filled voice came out, much like a radio. The man said something else, and the box responded in turn. With a nod, the man put it back in his pocket. Then he stalked forward, grabbing the boy's arm and snatching my own.

"Oi!" the boy barked, struggling to pull away when the two of us were forcibly dragged towards the vehicles. "Let go of me! Get your filthy hands off of me!"

The officer ignored him, walking at such a quick pace that I had trouble keeping up with him. I stumbled, on the verge of losing my balance, but he didn't slow down. My heart pounded up my throat when he stopped in front of one of the vehicles I'd seen earlier..

"Stop!" I cried, kicking my legs in terror when another officer grabbed me by the arms and lifted me into the back of the van. "LET GO! HELP! HELP!"

But nobody even looked our way: there were about ten people already sitting on a bench in the back of the automobile I'd just been put in. An old English woman sitting near the edge patted the seat and said something in a sweet tone, and while I didn't understand it, I got the message.

Jerkily, I flopped down on the bench, holding my bag close to my chest.

Not long after, the boy I'd been talking to sat down beside me and grumbled.

"You," he muttered, poking my arm, "what's your name?"

I barely even heard him. I had gone completely numb. I had to be dreaming.

"Yamamura Mayumi," I said blankly, staring off into space. "And you?"

"Hiroto Yusuke," he grunted.

That made me look at him funny, since his name was a rather unusual one, but before anything else could be said between the two of us, they slammed the doors and everyone inside the van, not just us two, jumped and looked at each other with expressions of fear on their faces.

I drew my knees up to my chin when the sound of an engine filled the van.

I could feel the vibrations.

I didn't know what was going on yet, but at some point, I was sure we would find out.

All I really wanted right then was to go home.


End file.
